Toward Conceptual Specification of Communication Protocols

Communication Protocols are specified by using either formal or graphical notations. For this purpose, Specification and Description Language (SDL) is a formal language used extensively in telecommunication for development of software and hardware. Its diagrammatic version with complementary Message Sequence Chart (MSC) diagrams provides a description of system communication in the form of message flows. Still, the resultant diagrams are fragmented and lack continuity in depicting the succession of events. This paper proposes a model that can serve as a base for protocol specification. The aim is to introduce a conceptual and complete description of basic streams of flow among entities in order to identify rules of data transfer. The resultant specification is a map over which a protocol can be superimposed.